I was tied up with professional obligations for the past 24 hours and wasn’t able to post an update or live blog from Hammersmith yesterday. Here are highlights from the show as well as tons of new photos and the latest Adam news. Scroll down for a full set of reviews of the Hammersmith show!! – Juneau

Quote of the day: @miltonline ….Brian May is a legendary axeman Adam Lambert is some kind of biological experiment to build the ultimate rock god.

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STREAKING UP THE U.K. CHARTS!!

@dazgale: In HMV on Oxford street which is the biggest one in London. They’ve completely sold out of the Adam Lambert album. Not a single copy left!

Fantastic news from the U.K.!! “Trespassing” has climbed into the Top 5 for mid-week debut album sales, and single “Never Close Our Eyes” is at number 13. Here’s hoping the tremendous positive response and publicity from the Queen concerts will continue to propel Adam’s music to the top of the charts. It was definitely a smart move on the part of the label to push back the release dates to this week!

Fame Factor – Adam Lambert set for first UK Top 10 album “The flamboyant rocker has already made history in the US with the album, becoming the first openly gay male singer to score an album chart topper on the American charts. ‘Trespassing’ is currently set to enter the album charts at No.7.”

Yahoo Music -Queen + Adam Lambert Rock London With “Queenbert” ConcertLyndsey Parker gives us a review to flail over anew: “The Queen fans endlessly hooted and hollered for Sir Lambert, and interestingly, they almost seemed anxious for his triumphant return whenever he left the stage for a requisite costume change. Many concertgoers even sat down during those intervals, and only hopped back on their feet when Adam reemerged wearing something even more unfathomably fabulous than his previous get-up…”

4Music – Can Adam Lambert step into Freddie Mercury’s shoes? 5 stars! “Adam Lambert fit effortlessly into the void left by Freddie Mercury. No one could replace Freddie, but Adam’s stage presence is electrifying and he possesses one of the best male vocals of our generation. What’s most impressive is how Adam Lambert connects with the music, despite not writing a single note of it. Who Wants To Live Forever perfectly showcases Adam’s ability to connect with the lyrics, feel the pain and anguish and really relate to what he is singing about. Ultimately, Lambert is not just proving his vocal power but also his ability to be the ultimate actor and showman.“

The Guardian – Queen and Adam Lambert – review 4/5 stars. “…what was conceived as an outdoor show was brought indoors with all the trimmings intact, including fireworks, pyrotechnics and a lightshow designed to be seen for miles. The result? A spectacle of such overblown majesty that, somewhere, Freddie Mercury must have been chuckling approvingly.”

Gigwise – Lambert fills Freddie’s shoes at opening night of London shows (PHOTOS) “Lambert fronted the band in true style, tackling classics such as ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ and ‘Radio Gaga’ in style – winning over the audience to the extent that critics are already calling for the band to sign the singer up to record a new album with the band.”

The Telegraph – Queen and Adam Lambert, Hammersmith Apollo, review3/5 stars. “Hand-picked by guitarist Brian May, Lambert can certainly handle the vocal range of Queen’s songs although he sings in a softer, more soulful, modern pop style, without Mercury’s rock grit or operatic bombast. But it is to his credit that he is a talent in his own right and not just an impersonator. If his performance seems to improve as the show goes on, its hard to be sure if that is a sign of Lambert finding his mojo, or the audience tuning in to his particular brand of flamboyant showmanship. He really comes into his own in a final, non-stop hit section, when they trot out the 80s smashes that, one imagines, Lambert feels most affinity with. He takes charge of the funky Another One Bites The Dust and rips the heart out of Somebody To Love.”

London Evening Standard – Queen + Adam Lambert, HMV Hammersmith Apollo – reviewThis critic started out skeptical and was won over: “Despite everything, even Lambert’s Jedwardian quiff, gold has been struck. Dressed initially in leather and tinsel, Lambert understands Queen. He embraced the ludicrousness of the ghastly We Are The Champions as willingly as the chunky funkiness of Another One Bites The Dust and Radio Ga Ga’s sweetness, but he also grasped that, innate daftness notwithstanding, Queen rocked.”

DAILY STAR
KIM DAWSON’S SET LIST
QUEEN AND ADAM LAMBERT LONDON HAMMERSMITH APOLLO
12 July 2012 by JAMES CABOOTER

AS great a rock vocalist as Paul Rodgers is, he never had the theatricality to do Freddie Mercury’s music just.

But mascara and leather clad Crazy Little Thing called Adam Lambert proved he has the vocal flamboyance and the right Kind Of Magic.

Backed by a light show straight from 79’s Live Killers, pleasingly raw versions of Seven Seas of Rhye and Fat-Bottomed Girls came in quick succession. Things sagged a bit when Rog and Bri kicked Adam off to sing a few classics themselves. But he soon minced back on in a furry red crop jacket for I Want To Break Free, Bohemian Rhapsody and all those familiar sing-along Dad favourites

Watching YT vids practically nonstop (*eyes glaze over from epic flail*) but what I saw with Adam on the catwalk in “Somebody to Love” (I believe) – despite all of the showmanship, talent and ego that could be involved, is Adam in the service of the music. I know, I know… he has said that repeatedly in interviews, but I SAW it, and it took on a different meaning. I was marveling at the energy, the confident freedom and the complete connection with the audience. He’s got the goods, has done the prep – he knows it, so “all” he has to do is surrender, be open and let it happen. I say: It’s a very generous thing to do. He knows what those songs mean to people and he’s making sure every one of them has an unforgettable experience.

Hauling out a chestnut:

Out of the Blue
December 31, 2011

“We are star-stuff,” the great man said.

Out of the blue
Just passing through
Ephemeral as an aurora curtain’s
dance in the night
Ethereal, borne on solar winds
Inspiration skips and streaks
From star to star, soul to soul
The atoms that make up your body
Were borrowed from the heart
Of a far-off galaxy
We are all planetary dust
Yet we share the gift
Of Universal Mind
Spin and dazzle, gleam,
Burn, illuminate the darkness
Gather fire from distant stars
And cast it back into the void
Your incarnation’s offering of glitter
To the great vastness
Of Being.

(Don’t know exactly what prompted this, but I’d heard a radio interview with – interestingly – Brian May a few hours earlier discussing how we’re all made up of planetary dust. He’s also an astro-physicist y’know! But the quote at the start is from Carl Sagan of “billions & billions” fame. This was the last Adam poem I wrote.)

Thanks for reminding me about this wonderful poem of yours. Will have to tweet it out tonight. But more than that, my heart swells reading your insightful words about Adam’s performance. Of course now I have to go back and watch them all again… thanks a lot!! -xox J